Harking back to my backpacking days, I would chat to everyone and always shared whatever was necessary to save cash. I realise it’s a race, but they were going to the same place at the same time so could have had a mutually beneficial deal there. The same with the long tail boats last time. That said! Stephen and Viv are now terribly behind and E&I galloped ahead, that taxi swipe seems to have had quite a catastrophic impact that I assume wasn’t the intention. I guess Eugenie was thinking they’d just be 10-20 mins ahead, not set off a chain of crappy events for their rivals.
Re the sad stories, I will give them this with the editing, I think it adds to the whole thing rather than distracts. I wasn’t mad about them going on about the first to go pair and dyslexia, it felt too much. But for the others they’ve left the sad bits till much later on, and it’s brought context into how I perceive them and rounded off the opinions I was already forming. I think the timing for me has to be right, I’m waiting for some kind of revelation on Eugenie and Isabel as to why their relationship is so fractious. I do feel I’ve gone from finding Isabel adorable to snooty, but then back again to starting to feel like there’s more to all of it and that surely it’s the parent of the dynamic that holds the most responsibility. I has been unpleasant to E a fair few times, but I find E quite insidiously unpleasant and with fewer redeeming qualities. I don’t think she thinks much of her daughter and I sort of forgive Isabel for picking up on that and responding in kind. I know if my kids grow up and we have that kind of relationship, I’d be questioning myself and desperately looking at my own behaviour and trying to improve things - not being like ‘well fuck you then!’.
Despite Betty and James desperately running out of money, they are at least in the cheapest possible place to be skint in. I hope they can stop to work, but the best place to work and build up a store of cash is not Indonesia at all. Plus they’re behind, although I’d rather they got to the end as runners up rather than run out of cash and not complete. Maybe something in a touristy area could bring them a bigger sum, but helping a poor family doing a low paid job won’t boost the budget.
I felt awful when they said they weren’t really eating! I wonder if they’re not eating because the only options are very local and not appetizing to them, or if it’s the money. If there’s things like 7-11 type shops then surely they can pay out for some cup noodles and bananas.